Duncan's blog on sabelaimages.com

Coming soon – tips on how to hold your camera steady.  In the meantime…

Merry Christmas

Duncan - pirate with a camera

A few weeks ago I attended the penultimate day of this year’s Carolina Renaissance Festival at the Village of Fairhaven near Huntersville, NC. It was billed as “a Medieval Amusement Park” and “one of the most interactive entertainment shows ever created.” There were hundreds of people dressed in all kinds of costumes, from the Queen and her attendants to buxom wenches, from knights in shining armor to drunken bums, entertainers in every direction, and no shortage of pirates, including me! It was a great event for a photographer, because nobody seemed to object to their picture being taken. It was really interesting communicating with the people around me. Other visitors typically were there to have fun and talked and behaved in their usual way. But I found it a bit bewildering when communicating with some of the characters, who stuck to their roles, with plenty salutations like “M’Lord” and “M’Lady”. And if only pirate  vocabulary included more than that one word – “Aaarrrgggh…”.

Fairy at Carolina Renaissance Festival

My favorite character was a fairy. Not only was she beautiful, but she was also wearing a beautiful outfit. I watched her on and off for about half an hour, and she didn’t waver from her role. She moved in slow motion with graceful ballet like movements, offering little gifts to enthralled little people and playing her double flute. Occassionaly she would bob her head and giggle coyly while batting her eyelashes and raising her hand to her mouth.  She let me take a few pictures but when I tried to talk to her she just continued being a fairy. When I offered my business card, she accepted it with a curtsy, but so far no word from her. I’m beginning to think maybe she really was a fairy.

If you haven’t seen them yet, view the Renaissance Festival Pictures .

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Duncan Moody
www.sabelaimages.com

The Judge

Rider taken from ground level

Welcome to the first blog on sabelaimages.com. This coincides with the launch of a new home page. A new gallery has also been added to showcase the two most recent events that I have photographed. First up will be the Carolina Renaissance Fair where I spent the day on November 15th, and an Equestrian event at Thoroughbred Training Center on November 8th. There are numerous other small changes throughout the site, mainly to improve navigation. I welcome any comments and suggestions on the website, and please report any problems.

The plan for future posts is to write weekly about related topics. Initially I will include several basic photographic “how to” discussions. Future subject matter will be guided by your feedback, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Talking of photography, which I have been doing for many years, I was reminded by a recent experience that I am still learning.  My approach when photographing events is to try to be as unobtrusive as possible. The best or worst example was a wedding I photographed years ago.  The bridal couple seemed a bit agitated when I met them a few days after the wedding, to hand over the proofs. Their mood changed dramatically when they saw the proofs. Turns out they had been concerned that during the wedding I wasn’t taking any pictures. I had been a bit too unobtrusive! My learning experience happened a few weeks ago at an equestrian event. I was doing my usual thing trying not to get in anybody’s way. To add a bit of variety, I thought of altering the angle, so I lay down on the grass, tripod set very low, with the camera about 6” off the turf. I was just outside the arena, shooting upwards through the fence. Suddenly the judge, from the center of the arena, called out to me to get up off the ground and back off! I complied of course, but didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I had been lying very still and thought I couldn’t be a distraction to any horse or rider. Later I found out that horses tend to look straight ahead. If they notice something lower, they will look down, maybe drop their head a little, or worse, the horse could get spooked.  The judge had become concerned when he saw a slight hesitation from a horse approaching me. So no more lying on the ground close to the fence at horse shows for me!

Thank you and I’ll talk to you again in a week.

Duncan